Abby Regan
1/20/12
USHCP
Mr. Masterson

Key Terms:
Compulsory Education Laws: Laws that required parents to send their kids to school.
Yellow Journalism: A style of "sensational reporting" used by newspapers to attract readers.
City Beautiful Movement: A movement that encouraged parks and attractive boulevards in cities.
Vaudeville: A type of variety show that featured many short performances.
Ragtime: A style of music made in the 1890s by African American pianists who played a driving rhythm with one hand and an invented melody on the other.

Key People:
John Dewey: A reformer who encouraged "hands on learning".
Frederick Law Olmsted: Designed Central Park in New York city.
Walter Camp: A football player for Yale during the 1870s who helped establish many of it's rules in principals.
James Naismith: A gym teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts who invented the game of basketball in 1891.
Edwin Booth: An actor who portrayed William Shakespeare's tragic heroes and a popular attraction in the 1860s and 70s.
Scott Joplin: The King of Ragtime.

Summary:

Education
*To help the urban working class, social reformers tried to extend more educational opportunities to them.
*The number of children who attended school increased dramatically after the expansion of public schools and the Compulsory Education Laws were passed.
*As enrollments increased, many thought that "hands on" learning was as important as reading, writing, and math, but many schools were slow to try 'hands on" methods of teaching.
*Other reformers stressed that schools educate kids on social matters, such as proper behavior.
*Although immigrants were often segregated in public schools, women were able to obtain an education.
*The number of American Colleges and the amount of students who attended them also grew.

Publishing
*Because more people could read, newspapers and literature became an important part of American lifestyle.

Popular Journalism
*The newspaper industry grew because the printers developed a new type of inexpensive paper that could withstand high speed printing, and papers sold for just pennies each.
*The different newspapers fought for the largest amount of viewers, and tried to attract readers with sensational new stories, and fancy illustrations and photos.
*The newspapers also fought for readers by publishing the comic "The Yellow Kid", who reflected the stereotypes of immigrants.

Literature
*Novels also sold at dimes and nickels each, and were becoming more popular with the new literate community.
*Some readers favored adventure stories, others liked realistic books about city life.
*The most successful books were ones that focused on Christian principals.

Leisure Time In Urban Parks
*People often relied on leisure activities for relief from city life.
*Central Park provided a rural landscape for city dwellers who enjoyed the scenic nature.
*The City Beautiful movement took a number of ideas from Garden City in Great Britain, and many thought it would be an attraction for city-dwellers.
*Americans took this new opportunity to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Leisure And Sports
*During leisure time many Americans played and watched newly invented sports.

Baseball
*The rules and regulations for baseball were invented prior to the civil war, and many teams were organized prior to the civil war.
*In 1869 Aaron Champion organized the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, and baseball became a full time paid job for talented people.
*William Hulbert organized the National League in 1876, which created a governing body for the sport.
*Baseball's popularity continued to rise, and the first World Series was held in 1903 with the Pittsburg Pirates vs. the Boston Pilgrams.
*African Americans were excluded from playing the sport for 60 years.

Football
*Similar to soccer and rugby, football developed in the late 1800s on college campuses.
*Although football was a popular sport, many people disliked the fact that it was so violent, and rules had to be made about making it less violent when Congress discussed outlawing the sport.

Basketball
*Basketball was invented in 1891, and by the mid 1890s there were both male and female teams.

Entertainment
*While some liked sports others enjoyed theatre and music.

Theatre
*The stage was such a popular place for entertainment that tickets were sometimes very expensive.
*Many audiences preferred more melodramatic plays, where emotions and stereotypes were exaggerated, making it easier to identify with the characters.
*Vaudeville was also popular and included animal acts, comics, signers, and skits.

Ragtime
*Ragtime was performed at vaudeville shows near the end of the century and proved to be very popular with audiences.
*Scott Joplin learned to play piano at a young age, by his teens was performing in bars, and was experimenting with new musical arrangements by the time he was an adult.
*John Stillwell Stark published Joplin's creation the "Maple Leaf Rag", which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
*After the success of the "Maple Leaf Rag", Joplin no longer played for audiences, and instead worked on teaching music and composing.
*Many new dances emerged from ragtime songs.